hacking

With the Galaxy Nexus and Ice Cream Sandwich just around the corner, everyone's excited for all the new features and look. We can't offer a way to get any of the features just yet -- that'll have to wait till the code drops -- but your favorite themer sure can have a ball with the system files from the SDK. All the graphics are there -- icons, status bar symbols, interface elements, etc. --...

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If you bought a TouchPad during the fire sale, and decided that you like using webOS while waiting for hackers to get a full Android port up and running, news in the Pre Central forums might get you a little excited. Android's not the only Linux based OS that people love to hack, and an enterprising young fellow in China has figured out how to get Android running...

Yesterday we saw the confirmation that, thanks to assistance from Sony Ericsson, almost all of its Xperia range will be receiving full support from custom ROM CyangenMod in the future. Now SE itself has publicly come out in support of independent developers in a post on its Developer World blog.
The post by Karl-Johan Dahlström (he's the guy holding the CM7'd Xperia Arc in the image above)...

The CyanogenMod and FreeXperia development teams have announced that they'll be bringing popular custom firmware CyanogenMod to all of Sony Ericsson's 2011 Xperia phones, along with many older X8 and X10 devices.
The developers promise full support -- with the exception of FM radio, which is still being worked on -- starting with the next release of CyanogenMod, version 7.1. Nightly builds are...

I'm an AOSP man. Sense has gotten good, but I just can't seem to tear myself away from vanilla Android, and more specifically, CyanogenMod.
The speed, the themes, and the customization are just a few of the reasons I'm always drawn back into Steve Kondik's world, so the night the EVO 3D alpha went live, I flashed it.
If you're curious about the goods, follow me after the break.

The Samsung Infuse 4G might finally see some Gingerbread soon, as build I997UCKI4 has leaked out for the 4.5 inch love child of a Captivate and a Galaxy Tab. I know plenty of you have been waiting (and waiting) for the slightly late Gingerbread update, and seeing a 2.3.5 build leaked out is a good sign that something official is close.
If you like to live on the edge, you don't have to wait for...

If you went out and picked up a Samsung Epic 4G Touch and have plans to hack at it, here's your starting point -- zedomax at XDA has worked out a root method for the new handset, and has full details and downloads to get you on your way. You'll need to have Samsung Kies and Odin 3 installed and running (boo!), which means this is Windows only for now, but long-time users of Samsung's Android...

Owners of LG's Optimus 3D (and the AT&T variant, the Thrill 4G) wanting to try some new, exotic software will welcome today's release of an early version of popular custom firmware CyanogenMod by developer Ricardo Cerquiera.
The "self-KANG" build is based on CyanogenMod 7.1 and Android 2.3.5, giving Optimus 3D owners their first taste of Gingerbread. A word of warning though -- it's still a...

Our pal digitalslacker is back, showing off a little MIUI action for the Nexus S 4G with another great ROM review. Reader submitted reviews are pretty much the best way to get an in-depth look at how things run, especially when it's something as complicated and feature-packed as a full Android ROM. Android tinkerers and hackers that use a specific phone tend to know it inside and out, and know...

A lot of cool things can be found when you tear apart code and start digging around. This is the case when the Webtop code for the Motorola Droid Bionic got busted open, and some device code-names were discovered. Besides a few we already know -- the Olympus, Sunfire, and Targa are the Atrix, Photon, and Bionic, respectively -- we see "common," which we assume is a generic term used to cover...

After a week or so of teasers, unofficial builds of CyanogenMod 7 are now available for the HTC Sensation and HTC EVO 3D. You won't find these n the source tree just yet, and there's no word on when they will be merged and join the nightlies so many love to flash, but if you're up for an Alpha sneak-peek of CM7 on your new 4.3-inch HTC beauty, now is your chance.Installing these builds is the...

Read our Droid Bionic Review
Our man Cory is at it again -- he has the hacking guides for the Motorola Droid Bionic ready to go and you can find them in the Bionic section of the Android Central forums. Start with his rooting guide, where the procedure is outlined for both 32 and 64 bit Windows (the Mac section is already reserved and will be coming shortly), and he has a great set of FAQ's...

Read our Droid Bionic Review For many of us, half the fun of getting a new Android phone is digging in and trying to break it make it our own. The Droid Bionic is no exception of course, and folks are having a blast getting methods all sorted to root and customize the Bionic, unlocking it's full potential. I love it when new phones come out, this is the kind of stuff an Android geek lives for...

If you've picked up a Motorola Droid 3, and love to tinker with things, listen up -- files have surfaced that will allow you to restore your D3 to a "factory-like" state and, more important, recover a unit that won't boot up. We have to be clear here -- this is not a standard stock .sbf file. If you use these files, you will no longer be on Motorola's upgrade path. This is for emergency use (...

Last Friday we reported that a RUU (ROM update utility) containing an early beta build of Android 3.2 Honeycomb for the Flyer tablet had leaked out online. Over the past couple of days, Android hacking giants including MoDaCo's Paul O'Brien have been busy turning the leaked RUU into a flashable ROM for rooted users. As work slowly progresses, XDA forum member globatron has managed to get the...

LG has released the Kernel source and assorted GPL bits for the Gingerbread build on their Optimus S device. No reports of anything showing in the LG updater tool just yet, and rumor says mid-September for an OTA. For now, this just means that our resident Optimus warlords (yes, they have transcended developer status) have some new code to play with and see if they can improve the Gingerbread...

The Motorola Droid 3 has been rooted, and while we expect root to happen for most Android phones, there are a couple things here that we want to talk about. To start at the beginning, the goal of any project to exploit or root an Android phone is to get the permissions you want, where you want them. Once you have administrative permissions on a folder you can also write to, you're pretty much...

It looks like HTC's unlocked bootloader policy may not be just what everyone was looking for, and several key portions of the firmware remain locked. What appears to be the case, is that using HTC's tool does unlock your bootloader, but doesn't grant you S-off status. Right off the bat -- if you don't understand what S-off means, you don't need it. It unlocks the ability to flash things like...

If you're rocking an Optimus S on Sprint, and we know a lot of you are, here's one more reason to hack the daylights out of it -- the Theme Team. Android Central developers jstntp and jondevere have been busy in the kitchen, and some kick ass themes are the result. There's sure to be something there to suit your tastes, and everything is well organized with easy to follow instructions. Chances...

We're back with another reader submitted ROM review, this time around we have Android Central member digitalslacker showing some love for the Nexus S 4G with a great review of Oxygen ROM. I've used this one for the GSM flavor of the Nexus S, and he hits it right on the head with his review -- a sweet ROM for a sweet phone. Hit the jump and check it out.Discuss ROM, hacks, and more for the Nexus...